That 11 percent represents 23 million people in the US who have tried VR, according to the folks at virtual travel firm YouVisit, who surveyed a representative sample of 1,000 online US consumers through Google Consumer Surveys. Those current VR users likely tried out available consumer technologies such as the Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard, or the existing, relatively low-res Oculus Rift development kits. Some lucky respondents may have gotten the chance to try the HTC Vive, Sony's PlayStation VR, or the near-final Oculus Rift prototypes at a trade show, but that's likely a smaller portion of the current audience.

Younger adults are unsurprisingly more likely to have an interest in VR; 18 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have tried a headset, and 46 percent of that age group expressed a desire to try. Only 14 percent of people over 65 years old said they wanted to experience virtual reality.

Interest and current access to VR is not distributed evenly across genders, either. While the survey found 15 percent of men had tried VR and a further 36 percent wanted to, only eight percent of women had already experienced the technology, with 21 percent of women expressing an interest. The gaming focus of many currently announced VR efforts may have something to do with this; while 40 percent of men said they were interested in VR gaming, only 15 percent of women said the same. The fact that studies show that more women are prone to simulation sickness than men may also add to the difference.

When you add up the 41 percent of the US audience with experience or interest in VR, you get a potential audience of roughly 86 million US adults that are at least willing to give the technology a try. While it's unclear how many of those people will end up becoming early adopters (or even late adopters) of the technology, companies like Facebook should be heartened that the technology they spent $2 billion to get into has at least gotten a good deal of potential attention.

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Kyle Orland
Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in the Washington, DC area. Emailkyle.orland@arstechnica.com//Twitter@KyleOrl